Scam warning!

Posted in blog by Colin R. Turner, August 6th, 2021. Read (past tense) 1,771 times

Unfortunately, the scammers have arrived.

Much as we love our open, sharing community, it’s important that we don’t allow ourselves to become victims of unscrupulous individuals who would try and take advantage of our generous nature. So, with this in mind, I’ve put together some tips to help keep you safe and vigilant on our site.

Too good to be true?

While we love to see people sharing fantastic and valuable things, we should also be a little wary when something really does look too good to be true.

Be wary of high value items. Be very sure about the giver before you commit to paying for a delivery.

Be careful when paying for delivery

It’s a fact that often the only way to share something at distance is when the recipient pays for delivery. While we welcome people doing so, please remember you do so at your own risk and it is your responsibility to make sure the person offering is genuine.

It’s a common scam for someone to pretend to offer something freely or for sale, then ask for delivery costs and keep the money without delivering anything.

Check your comms!

Is the person offering being friendly or chatty? Are they mentioning anything personal about themselves apart from the offer? Do they sound to you like someone who would sign up to a sharing site to help others? If the answer is no to any or all of these, then you should probably be suspicious.

What’s their reputation?

If in doubt, check their profile page. How long are they a member? How many transactions have they done? How many listings do they have? If they have other listings, check them as well. Do they look legitimate?

Are they keen to transact privately?

Of course you are at liberty to transact any way you wish, but anyone you don’t know who wants to deal privately via email or Whatsapp you should probably be wary of.

While Sharebay doesn’t offer any protection by transacting through the site, it provides a feedback system so members can leave reviews when transacting. So anyone who joins Sharebay but doesn’t want their sharing actions recorded likely has suspect motives.

Report! Report! Report!

If you have been scammed or have satisfied yourself that another member’s intentions are bad, please report them using the link at the bottom of their profile page. It’s completely anonymous and they won’t know someone reported them.

While they won’t be blocked from the site, your report will be filed and we will investigate. When enough people report a profile or the admins deem the member has fraudulent intentions, they will be banned from the site.

You can also report a listing using the link at the bottom of the listing page. We don’t investigate listing reports, but multiple listing reports will automatically remove a listing from the inventory.

Share safely!

Remember, sharing is not just about sending items this way and that. It’s about forging connections between like-minded people and creating a culture of helping each other out. If the person you’re dealing with doesn’t appear to have any interest in sharing and connection, well it’s probably because they don’t.

Share widely, but share safely!

Written by:

Colin R. Turner (42)